An aerial radiological survey was conducted over the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory (SSCL) site from July 22 through August 20,1991. Parallel lines were flown at intervals of 305 meters over a 1,036-square-kilometer (400-square-mile) area surrounding Waxahachie, Texas. The 70,000 terrestrial gamma energy spectra obtained were reduced to an exposure rate contour map overlaid on a United States Geological Survey (USGS) map of the area. The mean terrestrial exposure rate measured was 5.4 {mu}R/h at 1 meter above ground level. Comparison to ground-based measurements shows good agreement. No anomalous or man-made isotopes were detected.

Meteorologic data from the Pantex Plant and from the nearby National Weather Service (NWS) station at the Amarillo, Texas, International Airport were evaluated to determine if the NWS data adequately represented meteorologic conditions at the Pantex Plant. Annual site environmental dose calculations for the Pantex Plant have previously used the NWS data; information from this data comparison helped determine if future environmental dose calculations should use site-specific Pantex meteorologic data. The meteorologic data evaluated were wind speed, wind direction, and atmospheric stability class. Atmospheric stability class data were compared for years 1990 and 1991 and found to be very similar. Stability class designations were identical and one class different in 63% and 30%, respectively, of the paired hourly data. An unexpected finding was the preponderance of Class D stability, which occurred approximately 62% of the time in both data sets. The overall effect of meteorological differences between the two locations was evaluated by performing environmental dose assessments using the GENII dose assessment computer code. Acute and chronic releases of {sup 3}H and {sup 239}Pu were evaluated. Results using the NWS Amarillo meteorologic data were approximately one-half of those generated using Pantex meteorologic data. The two-fold difference in dose results is …

For a variety of reasons, thousands of oil and gas wells have been abandoned in the Gulf Coast Region of the United States. Many of these wells penetrated geopressured zones whose resource potential for power generation was undervalued or ignored. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Geopressured-Geothermal Research Program was chartered to improve geothermal technology to the point where electricity could be commercially produced from a substantial number of geopressured resource sites. This research program focused on relatively narrow technical issues that are unique to geopressured resources such as the ability to predict reservoir production capacity based on preliminary flow tests. Three well sites were selected for the research program. These are the Willis Hulin and Gladys McCall sites in Louisiana, and the Pleasant Bayou site in Texas. The final phase of this research project consists of plug and abandonment (P&A) of the wells and site restoration.

Six reports by independent accountants of the financial statements of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1994 are presented. The audits were performed on the financial statements on the (1) schedule of federal awards, (2) internal control structure, (3) compliance with laws, regulations, contracts, and grants, (4) the internal control structure used in administering federal awards, (5) compliance with general requirements, (6) compliance with specific requirements applicable to non-major program actions.

The objective of this Class III project is to demonstrate that detailed reservoir characterization of slope and basin clastic reservoirs in sandstones of the Delaware Mountain Group in the Delaware Basin of West Texas and New Mexico is a cost-effective way to recover a higher percentage of the original oil in place through geologically based field development. The project focused on reservoir characterization of the East Ford unit, a representative Delaware Mountain Group field that produces from the upper Bell Canyon Formation (Ramsey Sandstone). The field, discovered in 1960, is operated by Oral Petco, Inc., as the East Ford unit: it contained an estimated 18.4 million barrels (MMbbl) of original oil in place.

This progress report covers the period from November 1, 1990 to April 30, 1993. During that period, TEXT was operated as a circular tokamak with a material limiter. It was devoted to the study of basic plasma physics, in particular to study of fluctuations, turbulence, and transport. The purpose is to operate and maintain TEXT Upgrade as a complete facility for applied tokamak physics, specifically to conduct a research program under the following main headings: (1) to elucidate the mechanisms of working gas, impurity, and thermal transport in tokamaks, in particular to understand the role of turbulence; (2) to study physics of the edge plasma, in particular the turbulence; (3) to study the physics or resonant magnetic fields (ergodic magnetic divertors, intra island pumping); and (4) to study the physics of electron cyclotron heating (ECRH). Results of studies in each of these areas are reported.

This baseline risk assessment of ground water contamination of the uranium mill tailings site near Falls City, Texas, evaluates potential impact to public health and the environment resulting from ground water contamination at the former Susquehanna Western, Inc. (SWI), uranium mill processing site. This document fulfills the following objectives: determine if the site presents immediate or potential future health risks, determine the need for interim institutional controls, serve as a key input to project planning and prioritization, and recommend future data collection efforts to more fully characterize risk. The Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project has begun its evaluation of ground water contamination at the Falls City site. This risk assessment is one of the first documents specific to this site for the Ground Water Project. The first step is to evaluate ground water data collected from monitor wells at or near the site. Evaluation of these data show the main contaminants in the Dilworth ground water are cadmium, cobalt, fluoride, iron, nickel, sulfate, and uranium. The data also show high levels of arsenic and manganese occur naturally in some areas.

Surface remedial action will be completed at the Falls City, Texas, Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project site in the spring of 1994. Results of water sampling activity from 1989 to 1993 indicate that ground water contamination occurs primarily in the Deweesville/Conquista aquifer (the uppermost aquifer) and that the contamination migrates along four distinct contaminant plumes. Contaminated ground water from some wells in these regions has significantly elevated levels of aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, sulfate, and uranium. Contamination in the Dilworth aquifer was identified in monitor well 977 and in monitor well 833 at the southern edge of former tailings pile 4. There is no evidence that surface water quality in Tordilla and Scared Dog Creeks is impacted by tailings seepage. The following water sampling activities are planned for calendar year 1994: (1) Ground water sampling from 15 monitor wells to monitor the migration of the four major contaminant plumes within the Deweesville/Conquista aquifer. (2) Ground water sampling from five monitor wells to monitor contaminated and background ground water quality conditions in the Dilworth aquifer. Because of disposal cell construction activities, all plume monitor wells screened in the Dilworth aquifer were abandoned. No surface water locations are proposed …

The subsurface environment is an important national resource that is utilized for construction, waste disposal and groundwater supply. Conflicting and unwise use has led to problems of groundwater contamination. Cleanup is often difficult and expensive, and perhaps not even possible in many cases. Construction projects often encounter unanticipated difficulties that increase expenses. Many of the difficulties of predicting mechanical behavior and fluid flow and transport behavior stem from problems in characterizing what cannot be seen. An underground research laboratory, such as can be developed in the nearly 14 miles of tunnel at the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) site, will provide a unique opportunity to advance scientific investigations of fluid flow, chemical transport, and mechanical behavior in situ in weak and fractured, porous rock on a scale relevant to civil and environmental engineering applications involving the subsurface down to a depth of 100 m. The unique element provided by underground studies at the SSC site is three-dimensional access to a range of fracture conditions in two rock types, chalk and shale. Detailed experimentation can be carried out in small sections of the SSC tunnel where different types of fractures and faults occur and where different rock types or contacts are exposed. …

Patterns of microearthquakes detected downhole defined fracture orientation and extent in the Austin chalk, Giddings field, TX and the 76 field, Clinton Co., KY. We collected over 480 and 770 microearthquakes during hydraulic stimulation at two sites in the Austin chalk, and over 3200 during primary production in Clinton Co. Data were of high enough quality that 20%, 31% and 53% of the events could be located, respectively. Reflected waves constrained microearthquakes to the stimulated depths at the base of the Austin chalk. In plan view, microearthquakes defined elongate fracture zones extending from the stimulation wells parallel to the regional fracture trend. However, widths of the stimulated zones differed by a factor of five between the two Austin chalk sites, indicating a large difference in the population of ancillary fractures. Post-stimulation production was much higher from the wider zone. At Clinton Co., microearthquakes defined low-angle, reverse-fault fracture zones above and below a producing zone. Associations with depleted production intervals indicated the mapped fractures had been previously drained. Drilling showed that the fractures currently contain brine. The seismic behavior was consistent with poroelastic models that predicted slight increases in compressive stress above and below the drained volume.

The U.S. Department of Energy/Morgantown Energy Technology Center (DOE/METC) awarded a contract in 1991 to Prime Energy Corporation (PEC) to demonstrate the benefit of using horizontal wells to recover gas from low permeability formations. The project area was located in the Chittim field of Maverick County, Texas. The Lower Glen Rose Formation in the Chittim field was a promising horizontal well candidate based on the heterogenous nature of the reservoir (suggested by large well-to-well variances in reserves) and the low percentage of economical vertical wells. Since there was substantial evidence of reservoir heterogeneity, it was unknown whether the selected, wellsite would penetrate a reservoir with the desired properties for a horizontal well. Thus, an integrated team was formed to combine geologic analysis, seismic interpretation, reservoir engineering, reservoir simulation, and economic assessment to analyze the production potential and profitability of completing a horizontal well in the Lower Glen Rose formation.

The Big Hill SPR facility located in Jefferson County, Texas has been a permitted operating crude oil storage site since 1986 with benign environmental impacts. However, Congress has not authorized crude oil purchases for the SPR since 1990, and six storage caverns at Big Hill are underutilized with 70 million barrels of available storage capacity. On February 17, 1999, the Secretary of Energy offered the 70 million barrels of available storage at Big Hill for commercial use. Interested commercial users would enter into storage contracts with DOE, and DOE would receive crude oil in lieu of dollars as rental fees. The site could potentially began to receive commercial oil in May 1999. This Environmental Assessment identified environmental changes that potentially would affect water usage, power usage, and air emissions. However, as the assessment indicates, changes would not occur to a major degree affecting the environment and no long-term short-term, cumulative or irreversible impacts have been identified.

The uranium processing site near Falls City, Texas, was one of 24 inactive uranium mill sites designated to be remediated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Title I of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 (UMTRCA). The UMTRCA requires that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) concur with the DOE`s remedial action plan (RAP) and certify that the remedial action conducted at the site complies with the standards promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The RAP, which includes this summary remedial action selection report (RAS), serves a two-fold purpose. First, it describes the activities proposed by the DOE to accomplish long-term stabilization and control of the residual radioactive materials at the inactive uranium processing site near Falls City, Texas. Second, this document and the remainder of the RAP, upon concurrence and execution by the DOE, the State of Texas, and the NRC, becomes Appendix B of the Cooperative Agreement between the DOE and the State of Texas.

This report presents the results of geological characterization studies in a typical Grayburg reservior in the Permian Basin. The work applies geological models developed in outcrop studies to better constrain the geological reservoir framework and heterogeneity in a typical Grayburg reservoir, The South Cowden Grayburg reservoir. This framework provides a strong basis for defining petrophysical and flow unit properties in the reservior and serves as a prototype model for other Grayburg reservoir characterization studies. The Grayburg Formation in the South Cowden field of eastern Ector County displays an internal stratal architecture that typifies Grayburg shallow-water platform successions throughout the Permian Basin. Study of core and wireline logs in South Cowden field documents three orders of cyclicity in the Grayburg. The entire Grayburg constitutes a single long-duration accommodation cycle that commenced with a major sea-level rise. Two major diagenetic events strongly affect reservoir character in some parts of the field. Recrystallized dolomite is developed along vertical burrows in highly cyclic mud-dominated packstones and wackestones of the HFS 4 Grayburg highstand succussion. Later alteration and removal of anhydrite are focused in structurally low sections along the eastern and southern margins of the field.

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Historical evidence is presented for natural uranium series radioactive disequilibrium in uranium bearing soils in the Bargmann property area of karnes County on the Gulf Coastal Plain of south Texas. The early history of uranium exploration in the area is recounted and records of disequilibrium before milling and mining operations began are given. The property contains an open pit uranium mine associated with a larger ore body. In 1995, the US Department of Energy (DOE) directed Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to evaluate the Bargmann tract for the presence of uranium mill tailings (ORNL 1996). There was a possibility that mill tailings had washed onto or blown onto the property from the former tailings piles in quantities that would warrant remediation under the Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Action Project. Activity ratios illustrating disequilibrium between {sup 226}Ra and {sup 238}U in background soils during 1986 are listed and discussed. Derivations of uranium mass-to-activity conversion factors are covered in detail.